Steering members for articulated vehicle, particularly articulated tracked vehicle, comprising a front vehicle unit and a rear vehicle unit steerably interconnected by means of the steering member are known. The front and rear vehicle units are interconnected over a link mechanism of the steering member comprising link shafts about which both vehicle units are mutually pivotable by means of hydraulic cylinders.
WO 00/35735 discloses a steering member for an articulated vehicle being configured in such a way that the vehicle units firstly may rotate mutually about a longitudinal, horizontal shaft, secondly pivot mutually about two parallel, transversal horizontal shafts, and thirdly obtain an improved steering geometry with the vertical steering link situated centrally between the vehicle units.
Articulated vehicles with such steering member comprises a driveline for operation of front and rear vehicle units, wherein the driveline is arranged to run from the front to the rear vehicle units in connection to the steering member/through the steering member for drive of the rear vehicle unit. Further, according to a variant of such steering members, electricity, fuel, brake fluid and fluid for air-conditioning device are arranged to be transferred in conduits between the vehicle units in connection to/through the steering device.
Due to the fact that the steering member is exposed between the vehicle units it constitutes a weak point of the articulated vehicle. A problem with such a steering member is consequently that it is subjected to external impact, e.g. effective fire in a war situation, such that e.g. the steering of the vehicle or other sensitive function such as braking, drive function, electricity is put out of operation.
RU2206859 discloses a steering member for mutually steering a first and a second vehicle unit of an articulated vehicle. The steering member comprises a self-supporting house configuration in the shape of a tunnel arranged to form a supply space for protecting crew during transport of ammunition between the vehicle units. Such a housing configuration needs to be relatively large and consequently requires a lot of material which results in the steering member becoming relatively heavy wherein propulsion of the vehicle correspondingly requires relatively much energy. Further the accessibility is impaired among others in soft terrain due to weight and size.